Which organisation has developed the Kurdish Unified alphabet?

Sat, 17/05/2008 - 23:49 — Admin

In short we shall say KAL! KAL is an NGO and has been initiated on volunteering bases as a global open network. Members with linguistic, and IT skills are sharing their thoughts around Kurdish linguistic issues. They seek information, solutions and focus on a future for better understanding of the Kurdish language as one single language only.

Bearing in mind that the question of writing in Kurdish is one of the most controversial questions in Kurdish society. Kurdish linguist activities has never been the centre for any organisation in modern time but political aspect of it. Language has always been used as an weapon rather than a tool of communication among Kurds.

All the previous work done by Kurdish pioneers were individual works then has been adopted by politician and users, such as K. Kaban 1921, Tewfiq Wehby 1924, and Jeladet Bedir Xan 1931. The first ever official use of Kurdish writing system (Sorani) came out in 1954, and for Latin one was 1964. There has never been any institutional attempt for work regarding Kurdish writing system, but Korí Zanyarí Kurd in Baghdad 1968-1981, which never took off, but they made good progress. The KAL is the only international network which bring about the question of a global writing system for Kurdish, based on one single language and not separate dialects. Many institute has been contacted and all alive linguistic personalities are aware of the project, but the question is too political for many to accept therefore we work as an open network and keep the question alive for those who can think independently and professionally. We shall not forget that the issue has been raised by many individuals like Zabihí, J. Nebez, Bedir Xan before. Please brows further in KAL's web site and review the history of Kurdish language and writing system.

In 1992 Dr Dilan Roshani started the plan to write the first ever Kurdish text book in Southern Kurdish (Kirmashani), soon he realised there were so many shortcomings with current Kurdish writing systems, in regards to workability, cross dialects and lack of International IT based Standards and representation for Kurdish. Dr Roshani suggested some exchange and new selection to work around these issues. The idea become more completed after many feedbacks and turned out as the based for a global linguistic research network "Kurdish Academy of Language" KAL.

In simple words, in a society with 85% illiteracy this should not cause any problem to discuss as we are still beginners in writing experience compare to other nations. The platform is open for any discussion on any aspect of KAL, and we add those either as articles or FAQ to share with others. KAL is an open source for a future solution.